


Giles and the Dragon

by nothingeverlost



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not long after Emma arrives in town another stranger visits. Regina is not pleased. Mr. Gold, however, is curious. aka Giles comes to Storybrooke and Regina tries to feed him to Maleficent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giles and the Dragon

“Of course it would be the mayor,” Giles muttered to himself as he fought against the ropes. He appeared to be in a library, though it was sadly neglected. Any more than that he hadn’t figured out yet; his last memory was of walking out of the diner after a meal of tea and toast. His head was sore; he had no doubt that he’d fallen at some point, which was par for the course. Leave it to him to manage to get knocked out even when on holiday three thousand miles away from his Slayer.

“Things would have been so much simpler if you’d listened to me, Mr. Giles. I don’t like strangers in my town, and certainly not ones that poke their noses where they don’t belong.” The woman who must have been standing just outside of his peripheral vision moved so he could see her. Her suit was well tailored, her hair perfectly coiffed; she looked like the type of woman Cordelia might have grown up to be, if Sunnydale hadn’t changed her. She certainly didn’t look like she’d been dragging around an unconscious man. She must have had help.

“I don’t like being tied to chairs, but it looks like it’s not a good day for either one of us, Madame Mayor.”

“Oh, it’s not the rope you need to worry about. I’d be more concerned about the dragon in the basement.” She smirked when she nodded toward the elevator.

“No wonder your library is in such poor condition; first the dust and now the heat from dragon fire? Really, it’s unacceptable.” Giles shook his head, making a tsk tsking noise with his tongue. There was no reason to allow the woman to see that he was concerned. Or scared. Dying in the basement of a library was the last thing he wanted; Buffy might never know what happened to him. It would haunt her, he knew. Just as troubling was the idea of her getting a new Watcher, someone more concerned with Buffy the weapon against the darkness rather than Buffy the person.

“Enjoy your little witticisms while you can, Mr. Giles. I have to pick up my son from school, but I’ll be back to take care of you, and the care and keeping of books is going to be your last concern. It’s been some time since my friend’s last meal. We don’t get visitors often.” She stopped before him, her cupped hand forcing his chin up so he didn’t have a choice but to look at her. “Such a pity. You could have just driven on.”

“I’ll remember that next time.” He kept his chin up even when she released him, straining against the ropes with his back straight until the door closed.

“This is bloody brilliant,” be muttered to himself as he let his head fall. He moved his hands, hoping for any sign that the rope might have been badly tied. It didn’t give so much as a centimeter.

“I didn’t know the mayor was thinking of hiring a new librarian. Interesting interview process she has, wouldn’t you agree?” There was a dull thumping sound accompany the footsteps of the person speaking, very different from the click of the mayor’s heels. The voice was different too, almost Scottish in accent except that to Giles’ trained ear there was something off about it. A subtle difference that made him think of an older speech pattern, something not quite modern. The man in the dark suit, more fitted than anything Giles owned, leaning on a cane, didn’t exactly look like he was from a different time, though. Not unless one looked closely at his eyes.

“Your mayor has an interesting way of looking after her town.” It had been more than an hour since she’d left. An hour of straining for any sound, either of the woman’s return or the dragon that was supposedly beneath his feet.

“Mayor Mills is an interesting woman.” He leaned against his cane, his stance just slightly off center, enough that Giles could tell that the cane was a necessity and not decorative. “As are you, Mr. Giles. Tell me, what is it about Sunnydale California that was interesting enough to draw you away from a rather interesting career at the British Museum? I can’t imagine that running a high school library was much of a challenge even before it was destroyed, and you seem to be a man interested in challenges.”

“I wanted to see more of the world,” he lied, trying not to show how it unnerved him that the man knew as much as he did. He’d only arrived the day before.

“And apparently that includes our fair little town.” He took a step closer, and Giles felt something crackle in the air around the man. This was a man with power, he knew. What kind of power and how he used it, though, was the real question. “Just what did you do to get on Regina’s bad side so quickly? Enquiring minds want to know.”

“You don’t like her.” It was a gut instinct, and one Giles hoped he could trust. He’d be dragon food soon if he was wrong.

“We have a complicated relationship.” His smile was dry, and as wry as it was possible for a smile to be.

“I took a walk, and saw something I shouldn’t have. I was near the hospital last evening and the light hit the windows that were just above the level of the ground. I’m a curious man, and I couldn’t resist looking. There’s people down there. I saw a girl.” He’d planned to find out more, and ascertain if he should call Buffy or the police.

“A girl?” The man who had, a moment ago, oozed confidence turned white, his hand suddenly digging into Giles’ shoulder. “What did she look like?”

“The window was dirty and small, the room dark. I couldn’t make out much but her hair was long and brown, her build petite. She was turned away from me; I couldn’t tell anything about her age.”

“Show me.” Within seconds the ropes were gone, as was the immediate threat of the dragon and the cold eyed woman. Looking at the man he wasn’t sure his current companion was any safer, but at least he seemed more interested in the prisoner in the basement than in harming him.

“You won’t harm her.” It was his sworn duty to help people, even when it wasn’t from a threat of demons and vampires. The man clutching his cane like it was a lifeline or a weapon was, he was sure, a threat to someone.

“Mr. Giles, if the woman is who I think it is, hurting her is the last thing I will do. Our dear mayor, on the other hand...” He smiled, a frightening thing that showed canine teeth not quite pointed enough to be vampiric and a gold tooth. “There won’t be a place in this world or any other safe for her to hide in.”

With an odd politeness he limped over to the door and held it open. “I assure you, Mr. Giles, that both the girl and yourself are safe. Now if you don’t mind...”

“I don’t know who you are.” He was stiff, as he stood, but at least his vision wasn’t double. No concussion this time.

“I’m Mr. Gold, dearie. And I am not a man to be trifled with.”


End file.
